Uninstalling programs

[r3n4ud]

After I uninstall a program, the program folder still remains on hard drive. Is there a program that gets rid of everything associated with the program that is uninstalled?

[ROF]

Did you use the Add/Remove Programs in your control panel to uninstall? If not, you now have unaddressed registry entries on top of lingering folders and icons.

Always use the Add/Remove Programs to uninstall. Your windows OS will be much happier by doing so.

[ranchhand]

It has been my experience that the Add/Remove function is more of a convenience that necessity. Depending on the program, it will leave folders and crud that you have to manually delete. I think A/R only uses the uninstaller that the program itself has. It doesn't remove any registery entrys, that is why with every proggie I uninstall I go into the register and manually remove the orphan references.

This can be major work. In the case of AOL, I have removed over two hundred (200-count 'em folks!) entrys in clients' registers. Talk about bloatware!

I don't know of any program that will remove everything. I sure wish there was.

[ROF]

This can be major work. In the case of AOL, I have removed over two hundred (200-count 'em folks!) entrys in clients' registers. Talk about bloatware!

if you use the A/R on all your AOL Programs installed, the registry entries are zapped. You will receive a warning when you remove the AOL Coach that two entries in the registry are shared by other programs but are no longer in use. It asks if you want to remove them. You can safely click Yes to both warnings. No AOL registries remain. I do this all the time when repairing machines and updating them as AOL is my connection to the net. There are 216 individual entries for AOL9.0 Optimized and 227 entries for AOL 9.0 SE. A/R Programs removes all of them.

[r3n4ud]

I do use the Add/Remove Programs. Hate that there are lingering folders and files after uninstalls. So the only way to get rid of them after uninstalling a program is manually eh. Ah well, thanks for the help.

[thevoelk]

There's a free Registry cleaner tool I have at work. I can't remember the name off hand, but it works extremely well. I'm not too sure about empty folders in the Program Files directory, but that's much easier than manually doing it.

I'll post the link when I get back to work on Tuesday.

[VenGeanCe]

there's cyberscrub which can also do the unassociated registries cleaning job

[enstg8er]

i use the windows uninstall. then system suite/power desk to get the rest. it gets most everything, even registry and empty folders....

[r3n4ud]

Thanks for the recommendations. I'll check the programs out. I appreciate the help